Now that the tourists have left, it's a good time to get discounted theater tickets

By Robert Feldberg

The Record

If the holiday season is a time of box-office joy for Broadway producers, January begins what Shakespeare — in a different context — called "the winter of our discontent."

"Richard III"

The tourists have gone home, and many locals are wary of buying seats in advance for January and February performances for fear of bad weather.

The silver lining in this situation belongs to people who’ve been waiting for a chance to get good seats for hit shows. They’re going to be much more available now – often at discounted prices.

If you decide on the spur of the moment to attend a show, you can go to a theater’s box office, or check out availability at the several reduced-price TKTS booths in Manhattan and Brooklyn.

But if you’re willing to purchase in advance, you’ll have greater ease and a much better opportunity to find what you’re looking for at a lower price, especially if you’re flexible on dates.

To start, go to one of the Internet sites, such as Theatermania.com or Broadwaybox.com, that posts discount-ticket codes. When you click on

show you want, you’re linked to that production’s official ticket seller, either Telecharge or Ticketmaster – but with access to the cheaper tickets. (Should the weather, or another reason, prevent you from making the show, notify the box office and they’ll try to sell the tickets for you.)

Some recommendations on what to see:

From this season’s shows, there were two musicals I particularly liked — the darkly funny "A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder" and the exuberant revue "After Midnight." Among plays, there’s a superb revival of "The Glass Menagerie"; exciting repertory performances of "Twelfth Night" and "Richard III" (in which you’ll hear Mark Rylance, one of the world’s great actors, deliver the "winter of our discontent" speech); and "Waiting for Godot" and "No Man’s Land," two striking productions, also performed in alternating repertory, with two more marvelous actors, Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart.

I checked out discounted-ticket availability, on random dates, for several of these shows, and this is what I came up with:

For "Gentleman’s Guide," I located two excellent orchestra seats (row G) for Jan. 23 at $89 each. The regular price is $132.

(Telecharge, incidentally, adds an $8.50 per ticket service charge and a $2.75 per order handling fee, for both discounted and regular-price tickets. So, that bumps the total for a pair by almost $20. Ticketmaster adds on just $3.20 per ticket.)

For "Godot," for Jan. 21, I found a pair of decent orchestra seats (row N) for $95 each (regular price: $127). And for "Richard III," there were $107 tickets, regularly $137, for Feb. 5. They were close to the stage (orchestra row D), but off to the side.

Some shows offer lower-priced tickets only for weeknights, and in less-desirable locations, but many offer them for all performances, and in the same locations as full-price seats.

With 27 productions running on Broadway, there are many shows to choose from.

If you want to take a chance on one that’s yet to officially open, there are currently previews of "Beautiful," a bio-musical of singer-songwriter Carole King; "Machinal," a revival of a 1920s expressionist drama, and "Outside Mullingar," a new play by John Patrick Shanley ("Doubt") with Debra Messing and Brian F. O’Byrne.

There are, additionally, all those hit musicals from past seasons for which tickets are loosening up, including "Matilda," "Kinky Boots," "Pippin," "Motown," "Once," "Wicked," "The Lion King" and "Newsies."

There are even, remarkably, great seats available for the reigning box-office champ "The Book of Mormon." But they’ll cost you $252 each.

The tourists have gone home, and many locals are wary of buying seats in advance for January and February performances for fear of bad weather.

The silver lining in this situation belongs to people who’ve been waiting for a chance to get good seats for hit shows. They’re going to be much more available now – often at discounted prices.

If you decide on the spur of the moment to attend a show, you can go to a theater’s box office, or check out availability at the several reduced-price TKTS booths in Manhattan and Brooklyn.

But if you’re willing to purchase in advance, you’ll have greater ease and a much better opportunity to find what you’re looking for at a lower price, especially if you’re flexible on dates.

To start, go to one of the Internet sites, such as Theatermania.com or Broadwaybox.com, that posts discount-ticket codes. When you click on

show you want, you’re linked to that production’s official ticket seller, either Telecharge or Ticketmaster – but with access to the cheaper tickets. (Should the weather, or another reason, prevent you from making the show, notify the box office and they’ll try to sell the tickets for you.)

Some recommendations on what to see:

From this season’s shows, there were two musicals I particularly liked — the darkly funny "A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder" and the exuberant revue "After Midnight." Among plays, there’s a superb revival of "The Glass Menagerie"; exciting repertory performances of "Twelfth Night" and "Richard III" (in which you’ll hear Mark Rylance, one of the world’s great actors, deliver the "winter of our discontent" speech); and "Waiting for Godot" and "No Man’s Land," two striking productions, also performed in alternating repertory, with two more marvelous actors, Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart.

I checked out discounted-ticket availability, on random dates, for several of these shows, and this is what I came up with:

For "Gentleman’s Guide," I located two excellent orchestra seats (row G) for Jan. 23 at $89 each. The regular price is $132.

(Telecharge, incidentally, adds an $8.50 per ticket service charge and a $2.75 per order handling fee, for both discounted and regular-price tickets. So, that bumps the total for a pair by almost $20. Ticketmaster adds on just $3.20 per ticket.)

For "Godot," for Jan. 21, I found a pair of decent orchestra seats (row N) for $95 each (regular price: $127). And for "Richard III," there were $107 tickets, regularly $137, for Feb. 5. They were close to the stage (orchestra row D), but off to the side.

Some shows offer lower-priced tickets only for weeknights, and in less-desirable locations, but many offer them for all performances, and in the same locations as full-price seats.

With 27 productions running on Broadway, there are many shows to choose from.

If you want to take a chance on one that’s yet to officially open, there are currently previews of "Beautiful," a bio-musical of singer-songwriter Carole King; "Machinal," a revival of a 1920s expressionist drama, and "Outside Mullingar," a new play by John Patrick Shanley ("Doubt") with Debra Messing and Brian F. O’Byrne.

There are, additionally, all those hit musicals from past seasons for which tickets are loosening up, including "Matilda," "Kinky Boots," "Pippin," "Motown," "Once," "Wicked," "The Lion King" and "Newsies."

There are even, remarkably, great seats available for the reigning box-office champ "The Book of Mormon." But they’ll cost you $252 each.